[center][h1]New York City, United States.[/h1][/center]

[hr]

The morning sun rose over the largest city in the western hemisphere, the noise of the beginning workday filled the sky. Silence was difficult to find, but other than the burbling of the water beneath, the pedestal island of the Statue of Liberty was quiet as the top of a Himalayan mountain at midnight.

Of course that was because every moving organism had been killed except for one man, who stood in the crown of Lady Liberty, overlooking the city with a wicked smile. He yawned and pulled out a cellphone, dialing a number with silent glee. He held it up to his ear and blew out cigarette smoke.

[color=0054a6]"I'm here, she has a pretty skyline,"[/color] he said into the phone with a slight giggle.

[color=9e0b0f]"Good, I trust you have a plan?"[/color] a gravelly voice replied, audibly shifting in a creaky chair.

[color=0054a6]"Fuckin' duh! I've got a plan, I just need tunes... what's a good song to destroy New York to?"[/color] He gestured at the city as if he were talking to someone in the room with him, spinning and sending a white scarf spiraling and glowing in the sunlight.

[color=9e0b0f]"Well that depends, if you want irony, you could do New York New York, but I'm a fan of the classics, End of the World as we Know it comes to mind."[/color]

[color=0054a6]"I was around for the nineties, so irony is in my blood... but I think you're right, sometimes a cliche is a cliche because it's good... you know what, fuck that! Irony but in another way! In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel!"[/color]

[color=9e0b0f]"This bodes poorly..."[/color]

The man atop the statue pulled out a speaker, and after a few taps on his phone, had everything all set up for the perfect soundtrack to destroy a city to.

[color=0054a6]"Alright New York..."[/color] he said, turning on a bluetooth speaker and setting it beside him. [color=0054a6]"[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3kFPBtc9BE]Let's get romantic on this bitch![/url]"[/color]

As the soft sounds of eighties synth blared to life, the man's shadow blanketed the statue below him, crossing the water towards New York at great speeds, it blanketed the whole city within moments, then faded away once more.

As policemen discussed tickets with speeders, as workers laid on their desks wanting death to take them, nobody except for a few lucky souls noticed their own shadows slowly growing from the ground beneath them. They presented at full height behind their owners, now fully proportioned humans, and they wordlessly moved towards them. Hundreds of people found themselves suddenly stabbed through the hearts by their own shadows.

As their corpses fell to the ground, their shadows moved to aid those of others, spearing the hearts of some, smashing the heads of others, just violently killing everyone within reach. A few pulled guns and shot their shadows, only to inflict wounds upon themselves. Lucky few who had been in shadowy areas could only watch in horror, waiting in the dark, realizing that if they entered the sun they'd share the same fate.

The instigator of this massacre performed a slow dance with his own shadow in Lady Liberty's crown, jumping around the bronze in childlike glee. His handlers would be pleased if everything went off without a hitch, a statement, a truly awe-inspiring statement of intent. Exactly what the Cynics desired. If all went well, a powerful opponent would rise up to try to save the day, and be struck down, then he would leave. If the heroes came to them, it would be a lot easier to take them down one at a time, then destroy the world easily! A foolproof plan that nothing could ruin! It totally wasn't stupid!

Well, the shadows' master was too busy having a boatload of fun to think on the efficacy of their planning, it wasn't his job, and he preferred to use his brain to focus on more important things, like looking through the eyes of innocents' shadows to watch them in action, laughing all the way.

God it felt good to be a gangster.